Drinking water contamination from peri-urban Bengaluru, India

The presence of diarrhoeagenic bacteria such as Escherichia coli in drinking water indicates faecal and sewage contamination. Testing the microbial quality of drinking water at source (n = 29) and households (n = 43) of 29 peri-urban villages of Bengaluru city, indicated that 80% and 93% of samples respectively were unfit for human consumption as per WHO standards, i.e. nil E. coli in 100 ml sample. This also indicated that water gets contaminated further at the point-of-use when compared to the source.